Welcome to Book Zone Reviews. Today, I’m proud to spotlight and review A Thousand Lies by Kathy Cassel. Learn more about the book and my thoughts below.

For talented teen photographer Bailey Collins, small-town life is good if predictable. Great friends. Loving if overly-protective parents. Academic and artistic success. An amazing new boyfriend.

Until a school field trip to a Chicago photography exhibit turns upside-down everything Bailey has believed about her life. Why are the baby pictures missing from her own past exhibited under another child’s name? Who is this elusive artist whose own identity appears as much a mystery as her exhibit? Or the hostile stranger bizarrely claiming to be Bailey’s birth father?

Above all, if everything about Bailey’s life is a lie, who are the people she has always called Mom and Dad? And if they can’t be trusted, how can she trust the loving God in whom they’ve taught her to place her faith? As a mountain of unraveling lies place both Bailey and those she cares about in danger, she sets out on a peril-filled quest to expose the truth. Will uncovering her true identity bring the closure and purpose Bailey seeks—or turn out to be the worst mistake of her life?

My Thoughts

Lies Breed More Lies

A Thousand Lies is an engrossing read. This is my second book by Kathy Cassel, the first being Freerunner, and I was not disappointed. There is so much to love about the way she includes God in her books and the relatable way she writes about teens and their struggles.

Bailey is a talented photographer who attends a field trip in Chicago where she comes face to face with herself, as a baby, with tons of photos her parents said were not available and an intense stranger claiming to be her birth father.

This raises the question we all have at one time or another in our lives, “Who Am I…Really?”

Bailey begins to question everything she knows about herself and her parents and does some questionable things in her quest to find out.

In her quest, we find that lies are told on the part of Bailey and her parents. Thankfully, Bailey has great friends in Draya (an unbeliever) and her boyfriend, Reese (a believer). They are both supportive but go about it differently. Draya’s means are questionable, though the heart intent is good, Reece goes through the right channel and in that way helps to abort what could have been a disastrous situation.

This conversation between Bailey and Draya shows that we don’t have to beat people over the head with our faith to make an impact, we just have to let the Holy Spirit lead us.

What I Liked

• I loved Draya, she is hilarious
• I loved Reese’s faith
• I loved that the book has many takeaways, a few of which are:
  • Lies breed other lies
  • Our birth situation does not define us
  • Our identity is wrapped up in God
  • Even the best kids make wrong choices
• As a former New Yorker, I loved the visuals

What Gave Me Pause

• Not a thing!

In summation, Kathy is an astute author in that she does not make the teens all die-hard sold out for God Christians. Are there teens like that? Yup. Are they a majority? Nope. Therefore the equation and relationship of the three teens is a great representation of the faith-based climate as it stands in America right now.

This book can be used by teachers, youth groups, book clubs, family reads, and church groups to help teens see the necessity for truth and to have care in the friends they choose.

I received a complimentary digital copy of the book. My review is written voluntarily.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Kathy Cassel is the author of over a dozen fiction and non-fiction titles for preteens and teens, including 2021 Selah Award finalist Freerunner and the iParenting award winner Christian Girls Guide series. Kathy has lived on three different continents with her USAF husband, has eight children, five adopted from Haiti and the United States, and six grandchildren. To better relate to her characters, she enjoys learning their skills such as whitewater rafting, scuba diving, and riding a motorcycle, but draws the line at sky diving.

More from Kathy

A book begins in my head long before the actual writing starts. For A Thousand Lies I had a vague idea in my mind of a girl discovering her parents weren’t her actual birth parents and setting out on a journey to find the truth.

I kicked the idea around in my mind for longer than I’d like to admit before writing A Thousand Lies. I chose three teens for the main characters, Bailey, Reese, and Draya, and I chose NYC as the alternative setting because I fell in love with the city after my first visit there a few years ago.

After several drafts, I felt the story was a strong one and ready for publication. But as I lay watching my clock go around one night, a thought hit me. “What if the birthfather didn’t die in prison? What if he’s alive and free and comes after both Bailey and her birthmom?” And that started a rewrite that led to the completed YA novel A Thousand Lies.

I hope that my readers will find both the characters and the plot compelling as they join Bailey’s quest to find out her true identity.